Tree Rings Are Evidence of the Megadrought—and Our Doom
I love trees. I also love dendrochronology—literally, “the study of tree time.” This science, which uses data derived from tree growth rings, provides scientists with a wealth of…
Tag: Science
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) in Epistemologies – The Line Between Bodies and Ideas?
This browser does not support HTML5 audio Listen to an audio recording of this piece read by Nathan Klembara A recent trend in the sciences is the attem…
What Is SAPIENS Magazine?
SAPIENS magazine is an online portal for readers to better understand the world and what it means to be human. AerialPerspective Images/Getty Images WHAT IS SAPIENS MAGAZINE? SAPIENS…
SAPIENS Podcast Season 4 Reflections and Celebrations
In this live event, a panel of archaeologists and podcasters celebrates the completion of SAPIENS Podcast Season 4 and RadioCIAMS’ SAPIENS Talk Back series. Meet the amazing people…
What Do Anthropologists Do?
A person documents a centuries-old Basque carnival in Alsasua, Spain. Many anthropologists investigate cultural phenomena, such as rituals and religious traditions. NurPhoto/Getty Images …
Does Green on COVID-19 Maps Mean What You Think?
Picture a traffic light. This isn’t a trick question. We want you to visualize some sort of box housing three lightbulbs, each behind a colored filter: red on…
At the Limits of Cure for Tuberculosis
As part of a tuberculosis screening, a radiologist in Germany examines a lung X-ray of a refugee from the 2022 Russian war in Ukraine. Matthias Balk/Picture Alliance/Getty Images…
An Ecology of Knowledges: An Interview with Micha Rahder
An Ecology of Knowledges: Fear, Love, and Technoscience in Guatemalan Forest Conservation By Micha Rahder, Independent Scholar 336pp. Durham, NC: Duke University Press § Colin Hoag spoke…
Javelinas and Texas Ebony Trees in South Texas
Texas Ebony trees (Ebenopsis ebano) is a species of legume native to South Texas. These trees produce large bean pods (see below) that ripen and fall to the…
How “Wilderness” Was Invented Without Indigenous Peoples
Anthropologist Spencer Greening, a member of the Gitga’at First Nation, maps 2,000-year-old fish traps in an intertidal area as part of his graduate studies in Indigenous resource management…
What a Shipwreck’s Tree Rings Reveal
Tree rings in a cross section of an oak hull plank from the ship Batavia, which sank in 1629, hold clues to the 17th-century timber trade in Europe.…
Fuel Maps: Digitizing Grass and Sensing Fire in Brazil
Guilherme M. Fagundes, Princeton University § Part and parcel of the technological repertoire in wildland fire management, fuel maps invite us to reflect on the everyday life of…
A Window on Humanity’s Turbulent 2021
[no-caption] John Finney Photography/Getty Images Amid forest fires, the storming of the U.S. Capitol, private space flights and more, 2021 saw the pandemic bed in. Each time it…
When Biblically Inspired Pseudoscience and Clickbait Cause Looting
Archaeologist and co-author Morag M. Kersel stands in one of thousands of looters’ pits at the Early Bronze Age cemetery of Bâb adh-Dhrâʿ in Jordan. Yorke M. Rowan…
Does DNA Simplify or Complicate Repatriation Claims?
University of Cape Town archaeologist Simon Hall leads a visit to the farm in Sutherland, South Africa, from which the remains of several individuals were taken a century…
The Humans We Haven’t Met Yet
At the Sima de los Huesos (“Pit of the Bones”) archaeological site in Spain, researchers recovered DNA from 417,000-year-old hominin fossils that may be the ancestors of Neanderthals.…
The Blockbuster Exhibit That Shouldn’t Have Been
Museum professionals often point to the 1972 to 1981 Treasures of Tutankhamun tour as the beginning of the blockbuster exhibit era, in which museums host exhibitions that appeal…
Repatriation Has Transformed, Not Ended, Research
“Wheel,” by the Cheyenne-Arapaho artist Hock E Aye Vi Edgar Heap of Birds is situated outside the Denver Art Museum. The artwork evokes Indigenous peoples’ efforts to counter…
The Sisters of Loretto Share a Kinship With the Earth
The Sisters of Loretto, a women’s religious community, prioritize environmental stewardship at their working farm in rural Kentucky. Cody Rakes This month, global delegates have been gath…
“Of Peccaries and People: Perception and Politics in the Texas Hill Country” RAI Anthropology and Conservation Conference Talk 2021
On October 27, I presented some of my preliminary research at the Royal Anthropological Institute’s 2021 Anthropology and Conservation conference at the “Living with Diversity in a More-t…
Five Breakthrough Signs of Early Peoples in the Americas
A lot of ink has been spilled in archaeological debates about the human occupation of the continents known today as North and South America. When did people arrive?…
“Of People and Peccaries: Perception and Politics in the Texas Hill Country” Transcript (RAI Anthropology and Conservation 2021)
Presentation Slides: Of People and Peccaries PresentationDownload INTRODUCTION On my first day of fieldwork, I climbed a steep hill where my collaborator, Roger, reported a group of javelina…
Did an Asteroid Shape This Famous Biblical Story?
Ancient ruins show the cosmic impact’s destruction layer about midway down exposed walls. Phil Silvia This article was originally published at The Conversation and has been republished un…